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JIMENEZ: Corpus Christi's next mayor needs to get down to business

Nick Jimenez, Special to the Caller-Times
Published 6:06 p.m. CT April 29, 2017

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Eight candidates are running in the May 6 mayoral election.(Photo: Caller-Times Staff)Buy Photo

No matter who wins the race for Corpus Christi mayor, let's take ribbon cutting off the list of duties for the city's chief elected official.
While we're at it, let's take the mayor off the "State of the City" circuit, the annual high-dollar- a- plate presentation that purports to be a report on municipal progress.

I'm all for new store openings and small business celebrations, but when did it become expected that the mayor or other high official had to be there to make it official?

Not to throw a wet blanket on the party, but all this ribbon cutting and ceremonial "breaking ground" shoveling does fritter away time that ought to be spent on the serious business of governing, like figuring out a way to pay for street repairs.

There was a time when the mayor and the city council members really were part-time city legislators as the council-manager form of city government says Corpus Christi is.

But over time what was a supposed to be a part-time mayor's job become a full time gig. Mayors spent more and more of their time cutting ribbons, welcoming visiting conventioneers, giving keynote speeches, in essence, becoming personalities.

Some did very well at it. Luther Jones comes to mind. For others, it didn't seem to come naturally at first, although they learned how to perform adequately. Mary Rhodes comes to mind.

Rhodes cut her fair share of ribbons, but no one could ever accuse her of being a "glad hander." She was all business. I can't see her putting on one of these "State of the City" luncheon presentations where entertainment seems to count as high as content.

Our last mayor, Dan McQueen, lasted 37 days before resigning. But he did one thing that I agreed with: he cancelled out of the 2017 "State of the Mayor" luncheon.

I think we expect too much of our mayors, given that they have no more power than any other member of the council. A mayor, who is elected city wide, has the same vote as the single-member district representative who is elected by one segment of the city.

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It has been widely interpreted that former mayor Nelda Martinez was beaten by unknown McQueen last November because of the recurring water boils and unresolved street funding issue.

But Martinez, who is running in this election, was not the city's water director. And the next mayor won't be in charge of the city's daily water operations either. That's not what city councils do.

What city councils can be held accountable for is the direction they set for the city. Do they set priorities in the city budget so that we can have good streets, safe water, adequate parks and other city services?

But a mayor under the council-manager form of government can only go as fast and as far as the council wants to go. One council member with a contrary idea from the mayor can rally others and soon momentum slows, then stops. Think of former council member Chad Magill.

If we really want to hold a mayor accountable, then the position needs more power. A mayor might be elected for four years instead of the two years the rest of the council gets. That would give the mayor the longer tenure and the ability to look further down the road than two years.

The mayor can be given veto power over the rest of the council. That would have radically changed one of the many 5-4 votes that occurred last year when the mayor wound up in the minority.

That means any council member with an initiative would have to be sure about the mayor's support. You might give the council the power to override a mayoral veto with, say, six votes.

Mayors are not without power under the present system. They have the bully pulpit. Council members sometimes get the center stage, but the mayor always gets the quote in the press coverage.

The mayor also has a say in what gets into the council agenda and what doesn't. That is not an inconsiderable leverage point.

Yet mayors in Corpus Christi get their chief leverage by finding four other votes on the council. That means it is not what mayoral candidates say they will do but in what they can convince four other council members to vote for.

Finding those four votes is much more important than going to yet another ribbon cutting.

Nick Jimenez has worked as a reporter, city editor and editorial page editor for more than 40 years in Corpus Christi. He is currently the editorial page editor emeritus for the Caller-Times. His commentary column appears on Sundays.